- Title
- Challenges faced by healthcare professionals in reporting near miss incidents in a hospital, at the Amathole District, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Creator
- Ntlanganiso, Lindiwe
- Subject
- Industrial accidents
- Subject
- Accident investigation
- Date
- 2022-12
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27094
- Identifier
- vital:66276
- Description
- Background Recording and investigation of NMIs can provide valuable information on monitoring and enhancing patient safety in the healthcare facilities. This in turn, can reduce the likelihood of medico-legal claims. Regardless of attempts to establish efficient incident reporting systems across the entire healthcare industry, underreporting of errors persists worldwide. Therefore, not only do near miss incidents serve as early warning signs of impending potential failure in the healthcare system, but they also provide a chance for patient safety improvement. With that in mind, this study was undertaken to investigate challenges faced by health care professionals in reporting near miss incidents at a hospital in the Amathole District, in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Aim The aim of the study was to develop recommendations for healthcare management and healthcare professionals on how to better manage NMIs, and by identifying the challenges faced by health care professionals and the impact they have on the quality of care at one state-funded district hospital. Setting The study was conducted with healthcare professionals at a district hospital in the Amathole District, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Methods This study used a mixed method study design. Purposive and convenience sampling were used for participants’ selection for the study. Quantitative data was collected using the WHO Near-Miss Approach while individual and focus group interviews with healthcare professionals were carried out for collecting qualitative data. The maternity and neonatal intensive care units were identified as the two high-risk areas from which most medical negligence claims are lodged. The number of complications that occurred in each month of the year 2019 was determined by using components of the WHO near miss approach. The researcher adopted this approach to serve as a baseline assessment. Data was analysed using both Nvivo Version 10 and SPSS Version 20. Findings The challenges that healthcare professionals face in reporting near miss incidents at the study site included lack of knowledge about the reporting tool and system, inability to identify a near miss incident and healthcare professional attitudes and practices. The document review revealed that the NMIs are existent but not reported on the prescribed reporting system, a total of 210 actual incidents had occurred in the maternity and neonatal units of the hospital, which accounts for 62% of the 357 deliveries in the year 2019. Conclusion Based on the study result and findings, the healthcare system should shift towards a proactive rather than a reactive approach to medical and clinical errors. Continuously reducing the incidence of all patient safety incidents requires improved prevention strategies and effective strategies for recovery from possible medico-legal claims. The study further suggests that additional focus should be placed on NMI reporting and investigation so that operative improvement plans can be developed, implemented, monitored and evaluated. In essence, these improvement plans should be designed to progress patient care, reduce avoidable PSIs and reduce medico-legal claims.
- Description
- Thesis (MCur) -- Faculty of Health Sciences, 2022
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (113 leaves)
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Health Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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UFH Department of Public Health
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | NTLANGANISO L 200800316 Mini Dissertation.pdf | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |